Rudy is at the vet right now. I am trying not to freak out, but I am on pins and needles. I have to call at 3 p.m. to see if he is alert enough to come home. Sophie cried for a few minutes and watched out the window for a while after Bob drove away with him this morning. When she went outside I could tell she was looking for him. She seems OK now. Something funny, Bob asked the human resources office if he could take the afternoon off and charge it to family sick leave! He was making a point and a joke at the same time, since his co-workers call in every time one of their kids stubs a toe, someone else has to pick up the slack, and then those absent prance around afterwards with a sense of entitlement. Of course they told him he must use his personal leave instead. Now he says they probably filed his request in the "nutjob" file!

I emailed all the students with the outcome of my evaluations. About two minutes later, one of the worst students in my class - someone who put in zero effort, missed every deadline, and quite obviously did not take the class seriously, emails me, demanding a grade change (I failed him) because he is a graduating senior, all set to go to grad school in the fall - until now. He had accumulated less than 50 points in the class (about half were a gift), and his paper was either plagiarized or if it was his own, it had been written for a different class last semester. I didn't report him to Judicial Affairs, only because I didn't feel like going to the mat this time around, since if it was a plagiarism, it wasn't a carbon copy of a paper already handed to me, like the five cases last year. But his situation is supposed to be compelling to me; "oh yeah, I cheated and did no work, but I understand where you are coming from, and I am supposed to graduate, so why can't you do me a favor? Thank you in advance..."

On the other hand - the many wonderful students in my classes more than outweigh the lazy, unethical jerks - but the jerks sure do keep it interesting (and stressful).